Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

A24 TECHNOLOGY
Tuesday 23 July 2019

Fast-growing web of doorbell cams raises privacy fears

By AMY FORLITI and MATT by the homes.’” He said
O’BRIEN sharing video is voluntary.
Associated Press Green Bay, Wisconsin, gets
The woodsy community one free camera for every
of Wolcott, Connecticut, 20 people who sign up for
doesn’t see a lot of crime. the Ring app through a city
But when the police chief link.
heard about an opportu- Initially, police required re-
nity to distribute doorbell cipients of those free cam-
cameras to some homes, eras to agree to provide
he didn’t hesitate. any video police request-
The police who keep ed.
watch over the town of It dropped the requirement
16,000 raffled off free cam- after The Associated Press
eras in a partnership with began reporting this story.
the camera manufacturer. In the Minneapolis suburb
So far, the devices have of Coon Rapids, a thief
encountered more bears stole a 7-foot, 150-pound
than criminals, but Chief Ed bald eagle carving from
Stephens is still a fan. “Any- Larry Eklund’s yard earlier
thing that helps keep the this year. Police had a key
town safe, I’m going to do piece of evidence: an im-
it,” he said. age of the suspect looking
But as more police agen- directly into Eklund’s door-
cies join with the company In this Tuesday, July 16, 2019, photo, Ernie Field holds up a live video of himself taken by a Ring bell camera.
known as Ring, the part- doorbell camera at the front door at his home in Wolcott, Conn. A few days went by with no
nerships are raising privacy Associated Press leads. Then officers posted
concerns. Critics complain with recurring charges start- consent. camera’s actual location. the video on social media.
that the systems turn neigh- ing at $3 a month for users Realistically, though, if po- If police want a video, they Hours later, the carving was
borhoods into places of who want footage stored. lice want video for an in- must contact Ring to see returned.
constant surveillance and Ring says it stores the re- vestigation, they can seek if the resident is willing to “If we wouldn’t have had
create suspicion that falls cordings for two months un- a search warrant. share, said Jennifer Brutus, the Ring, we would have
heavier on minorities. Po- less they are deleted by us- Tech industry analyst Caro- senior management ana- never been able to recog-
lice say the cameras can ers. Many law enforcement lina Milanesi said engag- lyst for the Arcadia Police nize the guy,” Eklund said.
serve as a digital neighbor- agencies nationwide said ing with police and offer- Department. “I’m sure it would’ve been
hood watch. the idea to partner with ing incentives is a “very Arcadia launched its pro- just really hard to get it
Critics also say Ring, a sub- Ring came after the com- smart move by Ring” and a gram at the end of 2017, back.”
sidiary of Amazon, appears pany promoted its product missed opportunity for com- and in the following year, But Coon Rapids opted not
to be marketing its cam- at law enforcement con- petitors, including Google’s the city saw a 25% de- to partner with Ring and
eras by stirring up fear of ferences. Nest and smaller compa- crease in residential bur- instead started its own in-
crime at a time when it’s Some departments have nies such as Arlo Technolo- glaries, Brutus said. It’s hard house volunteer camera
decreasing. Amazon’s pro- chosen to simply use Ring’s gies and SimpliSafe. to quantify how much of registry. Trish Heitman, a
motional videos show peo- Neighbors app, which en- But a staff attorney at the that is directly related to community outreach spe-
ple lurking around homes, courages residents to share American Civil Liberties Ring, but she said the de- cialist for the police depart-
and the company recently videos of suspicious activity. Union of Southern Califor- vices act as a deterrent. ment, said the city did not
posted a job opening for Other agencies agreed to nia called the system “an In one case, a doorbell want to promote a particu-
a managing news editor provide subsidies, matched unmitigated disaster” for camera caught footage of lar camera brand.
to “deliver breaking crime by Ring, to offer hundreds the privacy of many neigh- four burglary suspects try- Another big issue was con-
news alerts to our neigh- of discounted cameras in borhoods. ing to enter a residence. fidentiality. Coon Rapids
bors.” hopes of tapping into foot- Through the subsidy pro- Three were arrested at keeps its list of registered
“Amazon is profiting off of age of residential streets, grams, Amazon “gets to the time, but a fourth got camera owners private. If a
fear,” said Chris Gilliard, an yards and sidewalks. And offer, at taxpayer dime, away. After the homeown- crime occurs near a cam-
English professor at Michi- some police chiefs raffle off discounted products that er gave Arcadia detectives era, police can contact
gan’s Macomb Commu- the devices. allow it to really expand its some Ring video clips, po- homeowners in the registry
nity College and a promi- Ring would not disclose tentacles into wide areas lice identified and arrested to see if they want to share
nent critic of Ring and oth- the number of communi- of private life way more the last suspect. video.
er technology that he says ties with such partnerships. than it already has,” Mo- Hammond, Indiana, also If any partnership required
can reinforce race barriers. Sharing video is always vol- hammad Tajsar said. put up money to offer Ring data sharing, “we would
Part of the strategy seems untary and privacy is pro- The Los Angeles suburb of cameras at a discount. Lt. never do it,” Heitman said.
to be selling the cameras tected, according to the Arcadia has spent $50,000 Steve Kellogg said the part- Back in Wolcott, Ernie Field
“where the fear of crime is company and police. to offer discounts on 1,000 nership was a natural move won a free Ring camera
more real than the actual “There is nothing required cameras. Several other for a city that already uses and said he had to regis-
existence of crime.” of homeowners who partic- communities in the region cameras to read license ter for the app to qualify
The cameras offer a wide ipate in the subsidies, and also participate in subsidy plates. for the raffle. Now he gets
view from wherever they their identity and data re- programs, and officials in “You cannot enter or leave alerts on his phone when
are positioned. Homeown- main private,” spokeswom- Los Angeles County just our city without ... being a car drives by and a short
ers get phone alerts with an Brigid Gorham said. She voted last month to get on captured on film,” he said, video when his daughter
streaming video if the door- said customers can control board. adding that doorbell cam- gets home from school.
bell rings or the device’s who views their footage, Officers can view a “heat eras are the next logical “I don’t know if there’s more
heat sensors detect a per- and no personally identifi- map” that shows the gen- step. “We thought, ‘Well, crime now, or we just know
son or a passing car. Ring’s able information is shared eral area where cameras the only angle we don’t re- about it more because of
basic doorbell sells for $99, with police without a user’s are, but they do not see a ally have is cameras right social media,” he said.q